Ku Klux Klan

noun

ˈkü-ˈkləks-ˈklan 

 also  ˈkyü-,

 or  ˈklü-

1

: a violent secret fraternal society founded in 1915 in Georgia to maintain white Protestant cultural and political power

also : any one of more than 20 hate (see hate entry 1 sense 1c) groups that associate themselves with the Ku Klux Klan

2

: a violent post-Civil War secret society founded in Tennessee in 1866 to upend the Black political and social power that was being established during Reconstruction

Note: This Ku Klux Klan had largely dissolved by the end of the 1870s.

Examples of Ku Klux Klan in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Sydney Batch, a Democratic lawmaker in the North Carolina Senate since 2021, stated that legislation prohibiting wearing masks in public in North Carolina dates back to the 1950s, when it was enacted to address the Ku Klux Klan's practice of wearing hoods. —Abc News, ABC News, 21 May 2024

Even the Ku Klux Klan weighed in, citing the friends’ German Jewish heritage as a reason for their depravity. —Meilan Solly, Smithsonian Magazine, 20 May 2024

The state party later disavowed McClanahan after a photo resurfaced online of him saluting in front of a burning cross next to a person who was wearing what appeared to be a hooded Ku Klux Klan robe. —Kacen Bayless, Kansas City Star, 19 May 2024

Taking Action Against Hate Not only can individual people hate, there are also hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan that attack people who are not white, straight or Christian. —Yolanda Gallardo, Discover Magazine, 18 May 2024

This strikethrough would return public masking rules to their pre-pandemic form, which were created in 1953 to address a different issue: limiting Ku Klux Klan activity in North Carolina, according to a 2012 book by Washington University in St. Louis sociology professor David Cunningham. —CBS News, 17 May 2024

The farmers dressed like Native Americans to conceal their identities. Between the 1920s and 1950s, several states passed anti-mask laws to penalize the Ku Klux Klan, whose members often wore masks and robes. —Jessie Balmert, The Enquirer, 15 May 2024

By effectively utilizing the Ku Klux Klan Act to file a lawsuit against the Klan, these five women were able to dismantle the KKK in Chattanooga. —Armstrong Williams, Baltimore Sun, 5 Mar. 2024

Most were passed to fight back against the Ku Klux Klan. —Jessie Balmert, The Enquirer, 15 May 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1867, in the meaning defined at sense 2